Low PH

[Tony Quinn]

This is my first message on this forum as I have only been a member of the Discus breeders forum (5 years) in the past. I have an 8" X 3" X 2" reef tank, all live rock (300 pounds). I have no major problems other than a slightly low PH reading which I cannot increase. My PH meter fluctuates normally throughout the day and although test kits show a PH of 8, the meter fluctuates between 7.77 and 7.95 daily. My dKH is 15 and I use Kent sea salt, I do twice weekly water changes of 60 UK gallons twice per week as I have quite a high bioload. How can I increase the PH, the buffers don't work merely make the water harder and please dont suggest gravel or sand as I have no space due to the rock. Thank you for any help you can offer. TQ

 

[Ph]

When was the last time you calibrated your meter?
Your Ph may be better than you think.

Your DKH seems a bit high, have you have a recent Macro die off in the tank? Dead Macro can drop the Ph as well.

HTH

Ph

 

[sillingw]

dripping kalk with your topoff water - kalk has a higher PH and if you drip overnight, it stops the precipitous drop and PH levels as a whole remain higher. Also, consider a refugium on an opposing light cycle, I did both these things and saw a significant rise in my PH levels without using buffers.

 

[Tony Quinn]

Thank you for the reply. The meter has just been calibrated, twice to ensure accuracy. The dKH is high because I loaded the tank with Super buffer in the false hope of increasing the PH, that didn't work. Is there anything I can add to increase the PH which will remain stable due to the high buffering capability.

 

[XXX]

I recently added a reverse lighting refugium which causes my pH to run from 7.85-8.05. For a year and a half before that my pH readings were 7.75-8.15. I never had a problem due to the low range. IMO I wouldn't sweat it. Corals will adjust to a wide variety of pH-as long as it's not a drastic drop or increase. Kalk will prop up the pH but I never saw any benefit to my animals from it.

 

[fish_who?]

I have the same problem. I was getting reading from 7.86-8.01. I posted a couple of times with no luck. I used the Kent Superbuff as you did with no luck. Lately I have been able to get the ph up to 8.10-8.26. What I did was add more agitation at the surface of the water. Are you running a Calcium Reactor? I was told on one of my posts on another board that I had too much Co2 in the water and needed a way to get it out. You might try what I did or even add an airstone to the sump as suggested in one of my posts.

 

[golfish]

Tony, how do you get all that rock in a 8"x3"x2" tank. What's that, like 1/2 gal

Let me ask you this. During the time of year when its nice outside and your able to open up a window or two in the house, does your PH go up? I found this to be a problem during the winter and summer months when the house is sealed tight (CO2) How about setting up a Nilsen reactor so your dripping kalk 24/7. During that past few months my tank was running 7.85-8.10 with a calcium reactor (KH 16) I added a Nilsen reactor and bumped the ph up to 8.10-8.35......just a thought

Another thought would be "if it aint broke, don't fix it"